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HMD Global launched five new mobile phones at MWC 2018, all with striking industrial design. By choosing to only offer handsets with Google's pure Android One or Android Oreo (Go Edition), HMD threatens to disrupt established OEMs with legacy software. The new Nokia 8110 demonstrates featurephones are evolving now with LTE and will not die soon. HMD's flagship Nokia 8 Sirocco has a stunning steel-framed dual curved edge display in a super compact frame which will target Europe.

Samsung is packing its main innovative push into the cameras of its latest flagship Galaxy S devices. With the new super slow motion video capture, Samsung has improved on previous industry attempts to commercialize this feature. The Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus are strong handset designs which evolve from 2017’s excellent S8. They are markedly different in camera quality and display size from the two to three year old smartphones potential customers own now which should boost upgrades. However, consumers may delay purchase because of rising flagship prices.

At MWC Sony Mobile unveiled two new smartphones, Xperia XZ2, XZ Compact and the commercial launch for its Xperia Duo wearable. The importance of Sony’s innovations with these new smartphones will set the tone for the smartphone market for the next few years. IHS Markit expects other smartphone OEMs to deliver similar capabilities in the future including copying Sony’s 4K HDR video capture. But there is much more work needed to re-build Sony’s smartphone business and achievable sustainable profitability.

At IFA 2017, LG unveiled the new V30 smartphone. The V30 is a critical smartphone launch for LG to establish a differentiated brand positioning from both market leaders Samsung and Apple but even more importantly from the rise of Chinese brands such as Huawei, OPPO and Vivo.

The objective of the article is to examine patent rulings in the past few years that have made major impacts on the smartphone industry in four different regions: United States, Europe, India and China.
In particular, this article will examine the following two aspects of the patent industry that are relevant to the smartphone market:
I. Rulings made on Standard Essential Patent (SEP) royalty rates
II. Recent changes in patent laws for each region

Mobile operator Orange has launched a range of new smartphone aimed at lowering the barrier to entry to 4G. The devices range in price between €79 and €239 and will be on sale across all of Orange's European footprint.

Huawei beats Xiaomi to offer its direct to consumer Honor range of handsets in Europe. The European Honor handsets will be distributed exclusively via online channels. The initial smartphone models include chipsets from Mediatek and Huawei's Kirin and are priced aggressively at €139 and €299. This is a bold brand strategy for Huawei because it risks spreading itself too thin and also risks its established operator relationships.

Google has launched its Android One initiative in India. The program aims to provide a high level of experience on low-end devices by supplying a standard reference design that will work with the latest version of Android. This aims to solve Android's fragmentation problems as well as stave off competition from Microsoft at the low end of the smartphone market.

The new Lumia 41 megapixel camera-centric smartphone will act as a halo product to boost Nokia's brand appeal. IHS forecasts that this smartphone will not ship sufficient volume's to turn around the company's fortunes on its own. Nokia's share of the smar